BMW’s F650GS Dakar Proves Itself Again

The BMW Dakars have proved once again they are bulletproof – day after day of being flogged and not one moment’s hesitation from any of them. We’ve completed several major expedition rides on these bikes now and they have been just outstanding. Comfortable to spend all day on, strong enough to carry rider and luggage, good torque in the 80-100kph range, no engine failures whatsoever and minimal maintenance. These are ingredients of a successful bike for this type of marathon riding and the Dakar has proved itself time and time again. We are sad indeed to see the end of the BMW 650 GS Dakar line – it has been a great machine and its Rotax engine just amazing.

However life moves on and with this bike no longer available we prepare for the next leg (Gringos Across the Amazon) of WorldByBike with a clean sheet of paper and thankfully there are a few contenders to succeed the F650GS Dakar – the new (Rotax-built parallel twin) BMW 800GS, the Yamaha XT660Z Tenere (single) and the Honda XL700V TransAlp (V twin) – all are in our evaluation sights.